AP US History Key Terms: Exploration to Revolution
Exploration and Colonization
Aztec – Nomadic tribe of hunter-gatherers with capital city Tenochtitlan. Known for their bloodthirsty ruler and numerous sacrifices.
Cabral – Claimed Brazil for Portugal.
Cahokia – Mound-builder settlement located near present-day East St. Louis, Illinois.
Cartier – French explorer (1491-1557) who explored the St. Lawrence River and claimed the region for France.
Champlain – French explorer who sailed to the West Indies, Mexico, Panama, and the St. Lawrence River/Quebec region.
Columbian Exchange – Exchange of plants, animals, diseases, and technologies between the Americas and Europe following Columbus’s voyages.
Columbus – Italian explorer sailing for Spain. Reached the Americas in 1492 while searching for a western sea route from Europe to Asia.
Conquistadores – Spanish explorers who conquered civilizations in the New World.
Coronado – Explored the southwest.
Cortes – Spanish conquistador (1485-1547) who defeated the Aztecs and conquered Mexico.
Da Gama – Portuguese explorer. In 1497-1498, his expedition from Europe to India led to Portuguese control of the spice trade.
De Soto – Discovered the Mississippi River.
Dias – Portuguese explorer who, in 1488, led the first expedition to sail around the southern tip of Africa from the Atlantic Ocean.
Encomienda – Land grant from Spain to a settler in America, granting the right to use Native Americans as laborers on the land.
Hudson – English explorer who explored for the Dutch. Claimed the Hudson River around present-day New York and called it New Netherland. The Hudson Bay is named after him.
Inca – A pre-Columbian civilization in the Andes Mountains. They excelled at engineering and developed new food crops like potatoes.
James Oglethorpe – Founded the colony of Georgia as a place where debtors from England could start new lives.
Jamestown – The first permanent English settlement in North America, founded in 1607 in East Virginia.
John Winthrop – First governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, arriving in 1630.
La Salle – Claimed Louisiana for France.
Line of Demarcation – A line drawn by Pope Alexander VI that gave Portugal control of most of Brazil and Spain the rest of South America.
Lord Baltimore – Founded Maryland in 1632, offering religious freedom to persecuted Roman Catholics.
Lord De la Warr – Arrived as the new governor of Jamestown in 1610. Delaware is named after him.
Magellan – Led the first expedition to circumnavigate the world. Also led a Spanish expedition to the Philippines.
Massachusetts Bay Colony – Colony founded in 1630 by John Winthrop as part of the Great Puritan Migration.
Maya – Noted for their architecture, city planning, mathematics, calendar, and hieroglyphic writing system.
Mercantilism – Economic system where the state regulates the economy through taxes, tariffs, subsidies, and laws.
Pizarro – Conquered the Inca Empire and enslaved its people.
Plymouth – Settled by the Pilgrims in 1620, it later merged with the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
Pueblo – Native American people of the Southwestern US. Known for their extensive irrigation systems to water corn and their multi-storied adobe buildings.
Puritans – A group of Protestants who wanted to “purify” the Church of England.
Quakers – A group of Protestants who broke away from the Church of England. They believed in equality and peace.
Triangle Trade – A system of trade where goods from Britain were shipped to West Africa to be exchanged for slaves. These slaves were then shipped to the West Indies and exchanged for sugar, rum, and other commodities, which were shipped back to Britain.
William Penn – A Quaker who founded Pennsylvania in 1681 as a place where Quakers could be free from persecution.
The American Revolution
1st Continental Congress – Held in Philadelphia in 1774, all colonies except Georgia sent representatives to respond to the Intolerable Acts.
Articles of Confederation – The first government of the United States (1781-1789). It lacked an executive or judicial branch and had limited power to tax or regulate trade.
Boston Tea Party – In 1773, colonists disguised as Native Americans dumped tea into Boston Harbor to protest the Tea Act.
Braddock – British commander during the French and Indian War. He was defeated and mortally wounded in 1755 while attempting to capture Fort Duquesne.
Bunker Hill – A battle in 1775 where the British captured a hill overlooking Boston, suffering heavy losses.
Daniel Shays – Led a rebellion of farmers in Massachusetts in 1786-1787, protesting against economic hardship and debtor’s prisons.
De Lafayette – French nobleman and soldier who aided the American Revolution. He fought alongside George Washington and spent time at Valley Forge.
Declaratory Act – Passed by Parliament in 1766, it asserted Parliament’s supreme authority over the colonies.
Duquesne – A French fort that was the site of the first major battle of the French and Indian War in 1755.
Federalists – Supported the ratification of the Constitution and a strong central government.
Funding and Assumption – Part of Alexander Hamilton’s financial plan where the federal government assumed the debts incurred by the states during the Revolution.
George Washington – Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army during the American Revolution and the first President of the United States (1789-1797).
Great Compromise – An agreement reached during the Constitutional Convention that created a bicameral legislature with the House of Representatives based on population and the Senate with equal representation for each state.
Intolerable Acts – A series of laws passed by the British Parliament in 1774 in response to the Boston Tea Party. They were meant to punish Massachusetts and strengthen British control over the colonies.
Iroquois – A powerful Native American confederacy that allied with the British during the American Revolution.
Jay Treaty – Treaty signed in 1794 between the United States and Great Britain that sought to resolve issues remaining from the American Revolution and improve trade relations.
Pinckney’s Treaty – Treaty signed in 1795 between the United States and Spain that defined the border between the US and Spanish Florida and granted American navigation rights on the Mississippi River.
Quartering Act – A law passed by the British Parliament in 1765 that required colonists to provide housing and supplies for British troops stationed in the colonies.
Sam Adams – A leader of the Sons of Liberty and a prominent Patriot in the American Revolution. He signed the Declaration of Independence.
Sons of Liberty – A secret society formed in the American colonies to oppose British policies. They were involved in protests and acts of defiance against British rule.
Thomas Jefferson – Principal author of the Declaration of Independence, third President of the United States (1801-1809), and founder of the Democratic-Republican Party.
Thomas Paine – Author of the pamphlet “Common Sense” (1776), which argued for American independence from Great Britain.
Von Steuben – Prussian military officer who served as Inspector General of the Continental Army during the American Revolution. He trained American soldiers and improved their discipline and tactics.
Whiskey Rebellion – A 1794 uprising in western Pennsylvania in response to a federal tax on whiskey. It was suppressed by the federal government under President Washington.
Yorktown – The decisive battle of the American Revolution, fought in 1781 in Virginia. General Cornwallis and his British troops were trapped by the combined forces of the Continental Army and the French Army and Navy, leading to their surrender.